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2010-10-04

Deaf denied exit by Bureau of Immigration

UPDATE:As of 8 am, October 7, 2010, the Bureau of Immigrations under the directive of Under Sec. Jovy Salazar of the Department of Justice has placed Mr. Franklin Corpuz on a Qatar-bound flight this morning. This is to rectify the situation and treatment Mr. Corpuz received on 4 October, 2010. This was made possible thru the appeal of Prof. Raul Pangalangan of the U.P. College of Law. A full investigation is ongoing. Mr. Corpuz intends to file formal legal action against the Immigrations Officer. He STILL needs your support for this.

This is not an official press release. I just want to get this out so more people will know. I'll update this post as soon as I get more information. This is from an email sent by Dr. Martinez of the Philippine Deaf Resource Center (PDRC), edited to include links and notes.

Purpose of trip:
Invited by company for Business Training and orientation on program for Persons With Disabilities and eventual employment. Program specifically recruits PWDs, two other Filipinos have been placed in Qatar, one Deaf, the other mobility-challenged(Link)

Highlights of incident:
F. Corpuz arrived at NAIA early 4 October 2010 and checked in. He was accompanied by a Qatar Airways flight attendant to the Immigrations counter. Upon being told by the flight attendant that Mr. Corpuz is Deaf,the Immigrations counter officer directs him to the Bureau of Immigrations
Office. He is interviewed there by an Immigrations officer (male) who says that he will be disallowed because he is “deaf and CANNOT SPEAK”. He was then asked to leave the airport.

[PDRC] placed a call to the NAIA Immigrations Office this morning and spoke with Ms. Gladys Castillo and Mr. Jeff Ignacio (administrative
staff). They said that as a matter of policy they are not allowed to release the name of the Immigrations Officer who interviewed Mr. Corpuz. Ms. Castillo said to send any letters of complaint to Atty. Ronaldo Ledesma, OIC of Bureau of Immigrations. Mr. Ignacio on the other hand said that in their Indicator Checklist for Offloading, the remarks were as follows: “No sufficient proof that his trip is for business to Qatar considering that he is deaf and mute.” He said that it was not specified as to what proof or documentation was lacking.